Friday, October 31, 2014

Happy Friday! I hope you all had a great week and are having a ghoulish Halloween!

If you are on Pinterest or Facebook, today’s Show and Tell is for you! I have some info on Facebook and Pinterest settings that could make your news feeds include more of what you want to see.

Pinterest: Recently Pinterest changed the way you see the pins on your home page. Previously your Pinterest home page was chronological, so you would simply see the most recent pins from all of the boards that you follow. Pinterest recently adjusted this so your pin news feed is based on web cookies and your browser history. Essentially Pinterest’s smart algorithms are now curating your feed, pushing pins to the top that they think you will be most interested in as well as featuring sponsored pins more heavily. If you’re fine with this, then you’re all set! But if you’d like to get your feed back to the way it was before, you can do so. Here’s how!

Go to your profile page on Pinterest.

Click the gear icon in the top right corner and then select “Account Settings.”

Under the first section “Account Basics” you will see a small section called “Personalization.” Switch both buttons in that section to “No.” Your feed should revert to the original stream.

Seeing Content from Facebook Pages You Like: Did you know that just because you “Like” a page on Facebook doesn’t mean content from that page will actually show up in your feed? In fact, it most likely will not. As I talk with friends I’m learning that Facebook users who do not manage pages have no idea this is the case. (People who do manage pages are very well aware – any given item I post on my Facebook page may only be seen by as few as 100 people and rarely tops 3,000, which does not match up to the nearly 18,000 likes I have on my page.) SOOOOO…if you “Like” a page and actually DO want content from that page showing up in your news feed, here’s what you need to do!

Visit the page that you like.

If you haven’t already, “Like” the page.

The little box that says “Liked” has a drop down menu – click on that then select “Get Notifications.” Now that page’s content will appear in your feed.

Friday, September 5, 2014

When I started this blog nearly 8 years ago, I was constantly sharing my favorite Trader Joe’s finds, much to the chagrin of those readers who didn’t have a Trader Joe’s near their home. I backed off a lot over the years, but I recently found an item that I am loving and have to tell you about. If you don’t have a TJs, my apologies. The Half-Baked Panini Rustic Rolls are AWESOME. We’ve used the rolls for pesto chicken salad sandwiches and for a variation on our caprese paninis. The bread is perfect for sandwiches, with a nice crisp exterior and chewy interior. The big bonus is that, magically, the sandwich fixings don’t squeeze out as you eat the sandwich. We LOVE this bread!

Friday, August 22, 2014

Happy Friday! I didn’t publish any blog posts this week – that might be the first time ever! It was the last week of summer and we are dealing with a plumbing mystery that has taken hours (days?) of our time and is resulting in the need to repipe our house. Yes, totally sucky. But, I have a house to repipe, so who am I to complain? As a result of my non-posting this week, I’m bubbling over with things to share with you, so today’s Show and Tell is chock full of good stuff!

I had a post publish on Babble this week entitled Kick It Old-School with this Milk Toast Breakfast Recipe. I’ve been excited for this post to go live so I could share it with you. The recipe is seriously delicious. As wonderful as the recipe is, I have a little something else about milk toast that I have to tell you about.

Milk toast is considered a “vintage” recipe, one that I’ve found many people haven’t even heard of. While I was researching milk toast for my article, I came across a comment on a random website by a reader named “Grumpy” that absolutely captured my heart. “I have tried to make [milktoast] from memories of my mother making it when we were children. We had more milk than we could use from the cow I milked, and fresh home churned butter mixed into the hot milk. Mine is not near as good as I remember it was back then. I am 85 and have to cook now, after all these years. I do miss my darling wife’s cooking.” Seriously, this might win best comment on the internet ever. I can’t even.

Moving on to less cute, more depressing things…how’s that for a segue? Aren’t you excited to keep reading? I thought so! Remember my annual New Year’s Resolution to Use Less Plastic? We haven’t talked about it since the beginning of the year, so I thought I’d touch base real quick. I found an article on Medium this week that you should absolutely read, Gyres: The Terrifying True Story of the Garbage That Could Kill the Human Race. I had a similar reaction when reading this article as I did when I saw the documentary Bag Itand the short video The Story of Stuff– basically a horrified, “we have to do something” reaction. The article about gyres is loooooonnnng and, honestly, the writing is super flowery and kind of hard to get through, BUT you still need to read it. I had pulled a bunch of quotes to share in this post but realized I had pulled paragraphs of quotes, so it’s probably better for you to just go to the source. And then let’s use less plastic together! I think about this goal every day and our family has definitely made progress, little by little. As Gandhi so eloquently said, “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” We can do it! (Sorry for the cheerleading, preachy portion of today’s program…sometimes I can’t help myself.)

Friday, August 8, 2014

Before I get to food links, I have two things to share with you that I’m loving.

First off, I started wearing Birks. As in Birkenstocks, specifically the Gizeh sandals. I received them as a gift last fall at a Ladies’ Home Journal event but didn’t start wearing them, despite my sister-in-law Hannah who works in fashion in NYC telling me that people were totally wearing them again. Then I bought a standing desk and my feet started hurting from standing so much and then I pulled out the fancy new Birks and THEN I FELL IN LOVE. Just thought I should let you know. My feet never hurt when I wear these. Plus, they’re actually kinda cute.

Second, a new company started by a mom contacted me about trying out their product, the Kupp’. My kids are absolutely loving it! I love that they are made out of glass, given my goal to phase out plastic as much as possible from our lives, but the silicone sleeve makes them very kid-friendly. And my kids love having their very own cup to be responsible for. They basically haven’t used anything else for two weeks!

Here’s my post on Babble this week. My kids and I were supposed to try a Disney recipe out and report on how it went. The popsicles are made from non-fat, plain yogurt, bananas and blueberries with just a bit of honey. I honestly didn’t think my kids would like the popsicles that much, but I was so wrong. They loved them! This is a great recipe for kids:

Friday, August 1, 2014

I don’t have anything particularly awesome to share today because I just spent three hours getting new tires on my car. Because I drove over a construction tool on the way home from the beach on Wednesday. And, you know what? As much as it all was completely inconvenient and expensive, I never freaked out. I remained surprisingly calm. On a related note, a few nights ago I got pulled over for not stopping completely at a stop sign and, again, was calm and collected. My friend Barbara said I was “cool as a cucumber.” (In the end no ticket, luckily!) So, I guess my big share today is that maybe I’m getting a little more zen than I used to be. Maybe. I am trying. Because, honestly, even when the crappy stuff happens, what do I have to complain about? I got to hang out with my kids this week, work at jobs I love, go to the beach, look at stuffed animals (literally) at the natural history museum with little people who for some reason just really love taxidermy. It’s all good, popped tires and all.

Okay, time for some fun food links!

On Babble, my kids and I tried another one of the Dishes by Disney recipes:

Friday, July 25, 2014

Happy Friday! I survived our first full week of summer at home. Yay! My strategy is to work a bit each day and then plan one fun thing to go out and do with the kids each day (even if it’s just a stop at the library or sprinklers in the yard). One of our fun activities this week was watching Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. I can’t even tell you how excited I was when it came onto Netflix service recently. The kids totally loved it! I especially love how nervous Cate would get during the suspenseful scenes, it was crazy cute. Also, I can’t believe how much of that movie I still have memorized. Kinda scary.

Friday, July 18, 2014

Hello, everyone! So, I really took a break from the blog this week…I don’t know the last time I did that! It’s just that we were too busy doing things like this…

But the party ends today…we’re flying home this afternoon! We’ve been gone almost a month and, as absolutely wonderful as our trip has been, it will be nice to sleep in our own beds tonight. That is if we survive the flight…wish me luck flying alone with 3 kids!

Friday, July 11, 2014

Happy Friday! Just a few fun links today and then I’ll be out of your hair! 😉 As always, please share your own stuff in the comments, too! I love seeing what you’re up to/what caught your eye during the week/all of it!

Okay, so I really loved writing my Babble post about making fondue with kids this week. We put it all together with our extended family here in New Jersey and had a blast! The cooking was fun, the eating was fun and everything tasted wonderful. Plus, there are lots of cute photos and two great recipes in the post. So, you know, be sure to check it all out!

Welcome to This Week for Dinner!

Hi! My name is Jane Maynard and you've landed yourself on my blog, This Week for Dinner™. Every Sunday I share a weekly menu...and count on you to share yours! You'll also find other deliciousness that I hope you'll enjoy!